TYPES OF

EXTRANEOUS
VARIABLES
 One of the goals of a
researcher should able to set
up experiments that do not
create confusion. When
experimenting, treatment
conditions are created to
clearly see the effects of the
independent variables.
Experiments should
be internally
validated.

Ideally, only the independent

variable should change
systematically from one condition
to another. Control of the subject
variables may lead to
confounding.
 THE THREE TYPES OF
EXTRANEOUS VARIABLES
PHYSICAL PERSONAL SOCIAL
VARIABLES VARIABLES VARIABLES
a. RESPONSE STYLE a. DEMAND CHARACTERISTICS
b. RESPONSE SET b. EXPERIMENTER BIAS
Physical Variable a. Elimination
b. Constancy
c. Screening and;
The testing room, noise,
d. Counter balancing
and other distractions are
all physical aspects of the
testing conditions that need
to be controlled. The
techniques for controlling
physical variables are
through;
Physical Variable
 B. Response Set
Personal Variable - Experimenters should avoid
measuring a response set.

- Subjects with a response set

A. Response Style respond in terms of latent
  - A subject with a response style has a content or the meaning behind
characteristic way of answering
the questions.
questions.
- Subjects with a response style may
- Social desirability is the best-
answer "Yes" or "No" and "True" or
"False" to most items. known response set.
- To control this response style,
experimenters should formulate
questions in such a way that subjects
cannot answer with a simple "Yes" or
Personal Variable
"No". 
 - One way of controlling demand
Social Variables
A. Demand Characteristics
 The mere act of being in an
experiment can lead to changes
in subject’s behavior which have
nothing to do with the
experimental manipulations.
 The subject may want to be
“good” subjects and their
expectation of what will happen
to them can also shape their
responses
characteristics is to run a
single blind experiment in
which the experimenter tell the
subject everything about the
experiment except which
treatment they will be given.
• This is common approach to
drug and nutrition experiments.
• Subjects are told they will
receive a drug or vitamin which
is actually placebo.
Social Variables
 B. Experimenter Bias
 The last source of error is the
experimenter.
 An experimenter may provide
subtle cues that tells subjects
how they expected to behave.
 One way two control
experimenter bias is the
double blind experiment.
 The double blind experiment
enables the experiment to measure
the dependent variable more
objectively
In principle, the experimenter should:
- Aim to prove that the independent
variable caused changes on the
observed behavior under different
conditions.
- Should carry out statistical tests to
determine whether the independent
variable caused the changes in the
dependent variables.
THANK YOU!!